Praise for StreetSmart team as parish and borough councillors cement close working relationship
Parish councillors have praised Swindon Borough Council’s StreetSmart team for their hard work in keeping the roads clean and tidy.
Published: Tuesday, 24th July 2018
The Borough Council and the Central Swindon South Parish Council have reiterated their desire to work together to ensure residents get the best possible street cleaning service.
The parish council has contracted StreetSmart to carry out grounds maintenance and street cleaning, and recently commissioned an independent review of the service.
The Best Value Review has been completed, with recommendations to continue with StreetSmart for 2019/20, with a view to looking at a longer five-year contract. The review highlighted a couple of areas of improvement, mainly surrounding the way StreetSmart collates information.
Based on the report, the parish council has taken the decision not to carry out a full tender process for 2019/20.
Cllr Chris Watts, Chair of the Central Swindon South Parish Council, said: “The parish council has been working with the Borough Council’s StreetSmart for the last 15 months and has been very pleased with the standard of work and the level of service.
“Our goal of overseeing a seamless transfer and continuity of service while securing the experience and expertise has been achieved, indeed improved upon with additional investment.
“A lot of positive feedback has been received from parishioners for which we pass on our thanks to all the frontline staff.
“The issues highlighted in the report mainly concern providing the parish council with information in terms of data and reporting and is consistent with the change management required in moving from borough council systems to a focused parish culture.
“I am confident that these goals can be achieved as the new parish moves to the next stage of its development.”
Cllr Fionuala Foley, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and the Environment, echoed Cllr Watts’s sentiments and thanked the StreetSmart team for their hard work.
She said: “Our street cleaning and grounds maintenance teams do a brilliant job, which is made infinitely more difficult in weather conditions like the ones we are currently experiencing.
“I welcome the opportunity to work closely with the parish in the coming years and we will be looking for ways to improve the StreetSmart service in line with the issues raised by the parish councillors.”